Mason Intermediate fourth grade gifted students in Amy Hammond’s class shared recommendations for brands that held the most value during the Mason Consumer Products Fair April 26.

The students shared the results of their product testing to demonstrate which brands can save consumers money. Attendees of the fair were also able to participate in their own testing, and learn if higher cost means higher quality when it comes to items like glue sticks, spray cleaners, toilet paper and more.

The morning of the fair, the students stood by their display boards and ‘pitched’ consumers their recommendations. The fourth graders chose their own experiment methods for testing the products such as wiping cherry pie filling with different cleaning sprays, or pouring a cup of water into a diaper and then testing its wetness.

The criteria for deciding which brands were best varied as well. Some experiments determined the winner by time - how long can tape hold 20 quarters? Others used quantity as the measurement - how many rolls of pennies until the plastic wrap tears?

The students’ research started six weeks prior, followed by a paper towel classroom experiment. Students were independent in running their own experiment, which involved hypothesis, step-by-step experiment planning, collecting data, graphing results, drawing a conclusion, and creating a list of the top five reminders to the consumer.

"This culminating Consumer Fair showcases all their hard work. From research and fact finding to being scientists in the classroom and finally to master editors, we wanted our display boards and our product tests to show the high standard we held ourselves to,” said Hammond. “With this kind of effort comes some pride, and it was written all over their faces!”